


Petrification:  Lose All Hope

by MegumitheGreat



Category: Tales of Zestiria
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Attempt at Suspense, Graphic Depictions of Illness, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, One Shot, malevolence - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-28
Updated: 2017-02-28
Packaged: 2018-09-27 09:53:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10002098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MegumitheGreat/pseuds/MegumitheGreat
Summary: After training in Glaivend Basin, Sorey suffers an injury.  Shortly afterwards, he and Rose exhibit strange symptoms.  While Rose is taken back to the the Sparrowfeathers, Sorey is left in Mikleo's care until their friends return.





	

**Author's Note:**

> When I'm upset to a point I attain a level of learned helplessness, I try to write to diffuse some of the feelings. This one shot, and all its unplanned-ness, was inspired by a preview for a doujin I found on Pixiv (執行者 by ウィンG) as well as some of the lore given by UFOtable in Season 2 of the anime in which if Sorey the Shepherd dies, so does Alisha and Rose (but I guess the seraphim don't die or instead fall to the malevolence since they no longer have a traveling vessel). Either way, this probably isn't as good as my other stuff because...ugh.

Mikleo watched Sorey as he slept in great discomfort. He had made a bowl of soft-serve ice cream for him, but it had melted within thirty minutes even with ice surrounding it. Sorey had refused to eat it thanks to recurrent waves of nausea. Ever since they had gone out to train and reduce the malevolence in Glaivend Basin with their friends, he had been feeling a little under the weather. They both knew that all the pacts had a cumulative effect on the young Shepherd. When Alisha became his Squire, he had gone blind in one eye. Mikleo took it upon himself to protect him. Because Sorey was right-handed, Mikleo guarded his left side. When he made the his Sub-Lord pact and noticed that he had been debilitated, he decided to take up his right side.

After Rose joined and probably because she became another Squire with resonance on par to his, Sorey wasn’t as weakened. It was only after Lailah had mentioned that the three humans were connected now at a spiritual level that he was bothered. If Sorey died, Rose and Alisha would also die.

Now that he was deathly ill either from the numerous pacts that divided his soul or from the sheer amount of malevolence that he had absorbed up till now trying to purify as many hellions as he wanted, Mikleo wasn’t sure what to do. If only he had protected him from the attack that rendered him like this…

***

“Sorey, behind you!” Mikleo cried out then.

The water seraph had been pulled into a one-on-one with one of the hellion soldiers left over from the war that took place in the dismal Glaivend Basin. Rose and Dezel were busy holding off walking armors and hellionized wolves while Edna and Lailah tried to dispatch them. Sorey was left to fend for himself in the cauldron of malevolence created by the Lord of Calamity Heldalf. Two of the hellion soldiers had attacked him, one pinned his sword under its own and the other was caught by its fist in his hand. An undead magician appeared behind him, the sharpened tip of its scepter aimed at his back.

Sorey peered over his shoulder at it unable to move out of the way. He knew he was trapped, and while he was aware that everyone else was fighting for their lives harder than ever before, he couldn’t help but pray that at least Mikleo would save him. The reflection of the scepter grew in his blinded emerald eye before it was buried in his back just a few centimeters from his spine.

“Sorey!” Lailah called from her battle. Immediately she felt a surge of malevolence resonate from Sorey’s soul. “Everyone, we have to help him!”

“If we all unleash out strongest attacks,” Mikleo started until another hellion punched him. He got back up, shouting, “Crystal Rod!”

As everyone unleashed their Mystic Artes, Sorey forced himself to get up. He fought off the hellion that had gravely wounded him. Before long, all of the hellions that had attacked them were purified.

“Good work…everyone…” the brunet congratulated weakly. He looked terrible. Mikleo rushed to his side to hold him up on his shoulder. He spied an increasing amount of crimson dyeing his Shepherd’s garb. The young man’s body was getting heavier. “We should find…a place…to rest…”

That was when they found the abandoned village of Forton. In shambles, there was hardly anywhere to take shelter, much less sleep. One of the house was in decent enough condition that they would set up a makeshift futon. Lailah and Edna spread out a sheet and used his garb as a pillow after Mikleo washed the blood out of it.

“Rose, are you alright?” Dezel asked with some remarkable concern. She looked feverish, and he decided that Forton wasn’t enough to take care of two humans. “I’m taking Rose back to the Tintagel Ruins hideout.”

“We should come with you,” Lailah said even though she knew Sorey couldn’t go on much further.

“Stay with Sorey. Rose is my problem. Her people will have medicine for her.”

“Why can’t we take Sorey there as well then?” Edna asked somewhat dubious. “He’s bleeding from his back.”

“That’s precisely why. Once Rose gets medicine, we’ll come back. Hell, we’ll bring more first aid for Sorey because he’s injured.”

Sorey, panting while lying on his stomach so Mikleo could tend to the wound, allowed Edna and Lailah to go with Dezel and Rose. Mikleo and his mastery in the healing artes were more than enough to take care of a regular flesh wound for the time being. With that, his companions left Forton for the Sparrowfeathers hideout.

***

It had been a few hours since Rose and Dezel left with Lailah and Edna. The wound had been healed, but Sorey’s condition hadn’t improved. Mikleo worried if it was infected, but he had enough confidence in his power that infection wouldn’t even have the time to cultivate.

“It’s not the wound,” Sorey rasped. “There was so much malevolence left over from the war that I think it’s finally getting to me.”

His skin was almost as pale as Mikleo’s save for dark circles around his eyes. He didn’t have the energy to sit up, but he believed that the malevolence he had absorbed from the battlefield was a pathogen ravaging his body. He felt ashamed for being helpless in his state. Until Lailah and the others returned, he had to rely on Mikleo for even the most basic of needs, and night was approaching fast. There was no safety in the dark.

But the water seraph didn’t mind because it was Sorey. He had scavenged and recovered a few dusty rags to use to cool his head that burned with fever. He also found a few pieces of cracked but usable dinnerware to facilitate eating.

“I’ll take care of you, so don’t worry,” Mikleo told him softly.

Time ticked on, and Mikleo watched him sleep. Sorey’s pallor was unsettling, but he didn’t focus on that as much as his fever, which had the potential to actually kill him. He lay a wet rag on his head ever ten minutes as best as he could time it. He placed ice blocks around his neck until Sorey began to shiver. The next best idea was to lay next to him and use his natural coolness to keep his temperature down. When he woke up, he watered him but couldn’t get him to eat.

“I made vanilla for you, so please eat,” Mikleo told him. Again, he pushed the spoon of ice cream to his chapped lips.

“If I eat, I’m going to vomit,” Sorey whispered, the nausea making it near impossible for him to speak. In fact, the water he was drinking made it worse. “Please, take me outside.”

Mikleo helped his Shepherd outside where Sorey roughly threw himself to the ground just as he began to retch and bring up water and bile.

“Sorey! Are you alright?” Mikleo asked him. He knew he wasn’t but it couldn’t be helped. Sorey threw up again. He rubbed his back. “I…What can I do to help you?”

“Just stay with me. Don’t leave me alone here.”

After bringing Sorey back to the futon, Mikleo took note of the darkened sky. Night had fallen, and Lailah and the other weren’t back yet. Was Rose sick just like Sorey? Mikleo washed out the soft-serve from the cracked bowl then set to work making more for his dear Shepherd.

“Will you eat it now? You’ve already thrown up, so…it should be easier to eat something, right?”

Sorey looked away. He couldn’t eat or drink anything. Even when Mikleo held a spoonful of the creamy white ice cream to his lips again, he refused. Defeated, the water seraph set it aside. Beside himself with what to do, he cleaned up Sorey’s face of residue from earlier; the Shepherd felt both cold and hot to the touch.

Mikleo took care of Sorey late into the night until he was somewhat exhausted. He lay next to him, again using his coolness to help with the fever. He listened for any signs of discomfort as he dozed off. A couple hours later, Sorey sounded like he was hyperventilating.

“Mikleo…! Mikleo, wake up…!” he panicked. “I can’t move…!”

Mikleo roused slowly from the grogginess brought on by the malevolence in the surrounding area and, strangely, coming from Sorey. He gazed at his fearful eyes then uncovered him. Everything looked normal until his Shepherd explained further:

“I can’t feel anything! Mikleo, please help! Everything’s numb!”

The water seraph hastily prodded his limbs, but Sorey couldn’t feel him. Was it the malevolence that had paralyzed him from his neck down? Mikleo used his healing artes yet they didn’t work, as if it was more like petrification than paralysis. His hands hadn’t turned to stone but felt like it—hard and heavy and immovable.

“D-Don’t worry, I’ll think of something!” Mikleo tried to say calmly.

Panacea bottles didn’t work against petrification, and the majority of their equipment was in Edna’s possession by means of her mysterious umbrella. Without the equipment with the skills that could stop petrification, Sorey was doomed.

“Mikleo…! Please…hurry…!” Sorey begged, his words sounding a little more strained than before.

“Can you Armatize with me?”

Sorey called out Mikleo’s true name, transforming into the beautiful being that was a combination of the two, but it was short-lived. Mikleo’s chest tightened upon feeling what Sorey was enduring. Within seconds, he had to separate from him so he wouldn’t suffocate himself.

“What do I do?!” Mikleo breathed. “There’s not enough time to cast Elixir Vitae!”

With nothing else coming to mind, the water seraph dragged Sorey out of the house then out of the ghost village. He wished desperately that no hellions would come after them. The Shepherd was getting heavier, and he cried in pain as his core hardened from within; Mikleo couldn’t do anything to stop the progression.

“It’s okay!” Mikleo foolishly. Everything was not okay—Sorey was turning into stone!

Sorey continued to cry out his name for fear that the petrification would stop his heart or his lungs or fossilize his bowels or blood vessels. His stomach was already done for, and it was so painful that he would have preferred to be gutted than endure having a boulder form inside him.

Amidst all the chaos on the battlefield of hellions and trying to make it to the Pendrago camp, Sorey’s voice fell silent. Mikleo turned to see if he was still conscious and he was…completely…utterly…made of stone.

“S-Sorey…? Sorey!” he screamed horrendously.

Everything was grey including his shining emerald eyes that were no longer to be seen because they were nothing more than large pebbles set in the stone of his face.

***

“Rose had suffered the same fate, spreading the sickness that lie dormant in Forton to the Sparrowfeathers and effectively eradicating their existence. The end,” Edna concluded. The glow of the campfire cast devious shadows across her face.

Rose clung to Lailah and part of Dezel’s jacket while Mikleo was quietly sobbing into Sorey’s chest. The Shepherd simply patted his head and offered him a comforting smile.

“Geez, Edna, don’t you think that was a little much for a ghost story?!” Rose chastised. “That’s not even a ghost story! It sounds a lot more like how you would try to kill us if you had the chance! Or like you read one to many books about stone sickness!”

“Ugh, no way. Killing humans is too much effort and reading medical books gets boring after a while,” Edna sighed. “Besides, it’s easiest to pick on Meebo and Sorey. At least you had an honorable mention.”

“I didn’t even have a line!”

Lailah giggled nervously. “Settle down, Rose. It’s all in good fun, I suppose,” she cautiously said.

Dezel simply sat there wondering when his assassin would let go of his jacket.

“Well, as long as we have Dezel, we’re perfectly safe from petrification!” Sorey happily said. “Alright, time to hit the hay. Night, everybody!”

Mikleo clung to him as he crawled to his futon. When asked why, he explained with great catharsis that he didn’t want Sorey petrifying overnight.

Rest assured, none of them did.

**Author's Note:**

> HAHA, YOU THOUGHT THAT THIS WOULD HAVE A SAD ENDING, BUT NO, IT WAS A HAPPY-ISH ENDING! Needless to say, I do feel better even if a little.


End file.
